Chapter Summaries

Karl led ten elite cavalrymen through the southern region of Fran City, raiding mines and estates, freeing exploited workers, and bringing thousands of people and resources toward Carnford. After Earl Rochefort ordered him to stop and return for his wedding to Princess Louise, Karl ended the campaign and turned back.

• Karl and ten veteran cavalrymen attacked Sir Sonny’s Blackwater River Mine, paid the miners their withheld wages, freed the workers and slaves, and recruited them to migrate to Carnford.
• Karl raided two villages and two neighboring noble territories, punishing local offenders, confiscating their property, and organizing the people’s migration.
• A knight ambushed Karl with household guards, but Karl’s cavalry defeated them and captured the knight, convincing the local nobles that armed resistance was futile.
• Sir Sonny and the other nobles sent accusations to Earl Rochefort, who eventually ordered Karl to end his inspections and trials and return to Carnford with the refugees.
• Karl obeyed the Earl’s order and led his men and the growing migration procession back to Carnford, ending his half-month campaign in the south.

Karl finished recruiting more than twenty thousand people for Carnford and said goodbye to Earl Rochefort before leaving Fran City. The Earl asked him not to have children with Princess Louise to protect Carnford from royal suspicion, while Karl vowed that he would never betray Charlotte.

• Karl told Earl Rochefort that the recruitment had gathered more than twenty thousand people and gave thanks for Fran City's support.
• Karl mentioned Charlotte, and Earl Rochefort promised to let her know how he felt.
• Earl Rochefort asked Karl not to have children with Princess Louise, explaining that a royal heir could bind Carnford to the Broomflower Royal Family and provoke the Empress Dowager, Katerina.
• Karl accepted the political reasoning but insisted that his loyalty to Charlotte came from love and would never change.
• Karl left the office, and Earl Rochefort worried that Karl would not keep his promise and that Charlotte and her child would suffer.

Karl returned to Carnford with the final group of refugees and found the settlement overwhelmed by a vast shantytown. Edgar reported that at least twenty-seven thousand newcomers had arrived, far exceeding Carnford’s resources and population.

• Anna remembered her family’s hardships as she traveled toward Carnford with Sarah and watched Tommy serve as a soldier.
• Tommy reassured Anna that the procession would reach Carnford in two days and promised Sarah a ride on a horse during a rest stop.
• Two days later, Karl and the final group saw thousands of makeshift shacks surrounding Carnford and hills stripped of trees.
• Karl ordered the group to continue to the castle, where he found shelters crowding the grounds and guards struggling to maintain order.
• Edgar told Karl that at least twenty-seven thousand newcomers had arrived, overwhelming Carnford’s housing, food, water, sanitation, and public order.

Karl reassured Edgar that funding for Carnford’s refugees would arrive soon, then announced the King’s marriage arrangement and proposed building fortified Tunbao communities. The chapter ended with Karl presenting his plan for housing, work, and defense as Carnford prepared to settle the newcomers.

• Karl told Edgar that he had found a way to secure funds and urged him to settle the refugees before they lost faith in Carnford.
• Edgar reported that Carnford had roughly a thousand craftsmen and three thousand experienced laborers, but lacked enough grain and money to feed its twenty-three thousand refugees for a month.
• Edgar told Karl that merchant caravans had gathered outside Carnford, but Karl postponed meeting them and called an urgent gathering of his advisers.
• Karl announced that King Sigmund planned to marry Princess Louise to him, prompting shock and excitement among those in the Lord’s Hall.
• Edgar outlined Carnford’s financial, food, and resettlement problems, and Karl asked Morr to address the shortage of housing.
• Karl sketched a Tunbao: a walled community with homes, workshops, supplies, and defenses where residents could work nearby and shelter from attacks.

Karl organized plans for settlement construction, refugee relief, farmland distribution, and selective military recruitment around Carnford. He assigned his officials to begin work immediately, leaving the town with a clear plan to strengthen its defenses and secure food and manpower.

• Morr praised the Tunbao design and offered to plan sites, construction, and budgets for a network of settlements around Carnford.
• Karl ordered Edgar and Morr to build the first Tunbao for five hundred to seven hundred households, each with a three-hundred-person militia drawn from eligible residents, prioritizing veteran subjects.
• Edgar proposed putting refugees to work on construction and farmland reclamation in exchange for food and future settlement opportunities, and Karl approved the plan.
• Edgar proposed giving reclaimed land first to veteran subjects and using a Work points system to reward refugees’ labor, and Karl ordered him to draft the rules.
• Karl tasked Brendan with screening refugees for experienced soldiers and recruiting qualified veterans into the Main Corps.

Karl instructed Edgar to establish a Culture and Propaganda Division to promote Carnford externally and strengthen education and unity within the territory. He planned to place Tommy in the new department, where his ability to organize and persuade people could serve Carnford and provide a safer future for his family.

• After the meeting, Karl stopped Edgar and explained Tommy's courage, initiative, and role in rescuing refugees from Jialan Village.
• Karl decided Tommy's talents would be wasted if he remained an ordinary soldier and proposed training him for civil administration.
• Karl asked Edgar to plan a new Culture and Propaganda Division to attract newcomers and build unity, literacy, and practical knowledge among Carnford's people.
• Karl proposed making Tommy one of the department's first core members and giving him and his family a more stable future.

Karl assigned Edgar to establish the Cultural Propaganda Department and ensure refugees received priority for new jobs in the Tunbao, while protecting the territory’s long-term stability. Edgar agreed to issue and defend the employment policy, and Karl left him to carry out the administrative work.

• Edgar praised Karl’s plan for the Cultural Propaganda Department and promised to draft its structure, budget, regulations, and staffing while arranging Tommy’s appointment.
• Karl instructed Edgar to prioritize landless refugees, especially families with dependents, for jobs created by Tunbao construction and related businesses.
• Edgar warned that established residents might resent newcomers receiving preference, but Karl insisted the policy proceed and said old residents could be compensated through other benefits.
• Karl told Edgar he could not personally issue the explicit order, and Edgar agreed to announce and defend it as domestic affairs steward.
• Karl patted Edgar’s shoulder and left the meeting room, while Edgar reflected that Karl was becoming more like the Duke.

Karl met with Grimm, a merchant from the south, and used his wife Ella’s bracelet to establish a connection before hearing the merchant guild’s proposal for Carnford. The meeting left Karl recognizing that the guild’s offer to supply necessities was a bid to control Carnford’s strategic markets.

• Grimm introduced himself to Karl and praised Carnford’s victory on behalf of the southern United Merchant Guild.
• Karl asked Grimm how his wife, Ella, was doing and recalled giving her a pearl bracelet at a banquet hosted by Earl Rochefort.
• Grimm realized Karl had given Ella the bracelet and treated the connection as an opportunity to strengthen their business ties.
• Grimm proposed that his guild establish shops in Carnford City and supply grain, cloth, ironware, salt, and other necessities at low prices.
• Karl recognized that the guild intended to exploit Carnford’s shortages and gain control of its vital industries.

Karl challenged Grimm’s attempt to secure control over Carnford’s essential trade by asserting the Lord’s Residence’s authority and claiming Earl Rochefort would supply cheap grain. Grimm abandoned his leverage strategy and agreed to operate under Karl’s rules.

• Karl questioned how Grimm’s guild would set prices and warned that Carnford’s shops and livelihoods could not be left under outside control.
• Karl claimed Earl Rochefort had promised rye at one Silver coin per one hundred kilograms, startling Grimm and undermining the guild’s grain strategy.
• Karl argued Carnford could obtain salt from nearby Amber Bay and eventually produce its own ironware from the Northern Territory’s resources.
• Karl declared that the Lord’s Residence would control trade in grain, salt, and iron, and warned merchants against trying to seize Carnford’s lifeblood.
• Grimm apologized and agreed that Southern United Commerce would follow Karl’s rules and seek legitimate business opportunities.

Karl and Grimm agreed on rules for the Southern United Commerce to open shops and trade in Carnford, including permits, prices, rents, and taxes. After the merchants left to prepare for business, Karl recognized that professionals still needed to work out the detailed regulations.

• Karl told Grimm that merchants needed permits from the Lord's Residence to trade in salt, iron, and grain, and set a grain price of one silver coin and seventy copper coins per one hundred kilograms.
• Karl approved the guild's proposed shops, outlined shop rents and stall fees, and Grimm chose two central shopfronts for a grain shop and a general store.
• Karl proposed a public warehouse near the docks and main road for caravans to rent.
• Karl set a ten-percent turnover tax and promised Grimm that appointed officials would administer it transparently without extra levies.
• Grimm agreed on behalf of the Southern United Commerce to follow Karl's rules and pay taxes, then the merchants left to prepare their shops and trade routes.
• Karl reflected that professionals still needed to establish detailed contracts, rents, tax procedures, and market-dispute rules.

Karl designed a governing structure for Carnford Territory to replace its reliance on Edgar handling nearly every affair. He settled on five administrative departments under the Lord's Residence, while recognizing that he would need to build the system gradually and first discuss it with Edgar.

• Karl concluded that Carnford's growing population and workload made its centralized administration unsustainable and began drafting a new structure.
• Karl assigned military affairs to the War Department, which he would lead himself, with Brendan handling its daily operations.
• Karl designated Hans to manage the Finance Department temporarily and planned to recruit an experienced financial expert.
• Karl chose Edgar to lead the Organization Department and Morr to lead the Department of Public Welfare.
• Karl established the Lord's Residence as the center for strategy and major decisions, but postponed forming a cabinet because Carnford lacked enough trusted talent.
• Karl locked away the completed framework and planned to discuss it privately with Edgar before putting it into practice.

Karl visited Tommy’s family in their new home and reassured them that they would eventually move to safer, more spacious housing. He then appointed Edgar to lead Carnford’s Organization Department and outlined a system for recruiting, evaluating, and assigning officials, leaving Edgar to begin building it.

• Karl joined Steward Edgar in escorting Tommy, Anna, and Sarah to their clean, furnished temporary home.
• Karl reassured Tommy’s family that they could later settle in stone houses in the first Tunbao on the plains.
• Karl gave Edgar a preliminary chart for Carnford’s governing structure and appointed him head of the Organization Department.
• Karl instructed Edgar to establish separate civil and military personnel systems, along with evaluation and appointment offices.
• Karl directed that candidates prove their abilities through examinations and performance, with Edgar reviewing personnel proposals before Karl’s final approval.
• Edgar accepted the responsibility and pledged to organize existing personnel, recruit promising candidates, and begin the examination and appointment process.

Karl ordered Edgar to establish state-run shops to stabilize essential supplies and outlined a future merchant caravan to bring Northern Territory goods south. Meanwhile, Tommy reunited with his family in Carnford and found comfort in his new home, but he still longed to return to the battlefield.

• Karl told Edgar to prepare state-run shops selling core supplies, with grain reserves and affordable public sales to counter shortages and merchant speculation.
• Karl proposed a future Lord's Residence caravan to gather Northern Territory resources and trade them in the south once Carnford was secure.
• Tommy gave Anna the money from selling their house in Jialan Village, and promised to bring his father's grave to Carnford when they could afford it.
• Anna learned Tommy had been transferred to the Culture and Propaganda Department and was relieved that he would work away from the front.
• As Anna and Sarah settled into their new home, Tommy felt grateful for his family's safety but continued to yearn for his comrades and the battlefield.

Princess Louise faced her impending marriage to Karl von Schmidt and departure for the Northern Territory, while the palace prepared a lavish procession whose dowry offered little practical aid. Alice told Louise she could take one last walk through Prye City before the procession left, and feared Louise might never return.

• The royal palace assembled more than a hundred carriages for Louise’s marriage procession, but the dowry consisted mostly of ceremonial and cultural treasures rather than useful supplies.
• Louise sat alone in her chambers, dreading her forced marriage to the stranger Karl von Schmidt and the prospect of life in the Northern Territory.
• Alice brought Louise the Empress Dowager’s offer to leave the palace for one last walk through Prye City.
• Alice wept as she warned Louise that the long journey north might mean she would never return.

The day before her arranged marriage to the Northern Territory, Princess Louise secretly visited the Royal Library to say goodbye to Henry Rochefort, the man she loved. They exchanged keepsakes and vowed to remain faithful and reunite, leaving Henry behind as Louise departed.

• Louise asked Alice to help her dress inconspicuously and slipped out of the palace with two maids.
• Louise went to the Royal Library, where she found Henry Rochefort reading.
• Louise gave Henry her mother's Broomflower Royal Family talisman, and Henry gave her an amber necklace from Hewenham Territory.
• Louise vowed that her heart would always belong to Henry and promised to find a way back, while Henry promised to wait for her.
• Louise left the library, and Henry stayed behind clutching her talisman.

Princess Louise left the Royal Capital in a lavish procession to marry Lord Karl von Schmidt in the Northern Territory, feeling exiled rather than joyful. She caught sight of Henry in the crowd and shared a final silent farewell with him as the carriage carried her away.

• Citizens gathered along Prye City’s central avenue to watch Princess Louise’s wedding procession and hear stories praising Lord Karl’s victory in the Northern Territory.
• The Royal Knights, band, Louise’s carriage, and her dowry wagons passed through the city as servants tossed commemorative wedding copper coins to the crowds.
• Louise sat sorrowfully inside the carriage, dreading her departure from the Royal Capital and marriage to a man she knew only through portraits and rumors.
• Louise spotted Henry hiding among the citizens, and they exchanged a tearful, wordless farewell through the carriage curtain.
• The carriage continued onward, Henry disappeared into the crowd, and Louise wept alone inside.

Empress Dowager Katerina celebrated Princess Louise’s departure from the Royal Capital, but Viktor warned that powerful ministers and regional rulers remained greater threats. Katerina then worried that Louise and Karl might have a child whose royal legitimacy could endanger Sigmund’s claim to the throne.

• Katerina watched Louise’s procession leave the Royal Capital and felt relieved that the princess had been sent to the Northern Territory.
• Viktor joined Katerina and praised her arrangement, while warning that veteran ministers and powerful regional rulers posed greater dangers.
• Katerina reassured herself that Viktor would help her eliminate their obstacles, and they embraced.
• Katerina stopped Viktor and asked what they would do if Louise and Karl had a child with a stronger claim to the throne than Sigmund.

Katerina worried that Karl and Louise could build a separatist power in the Northern Territory, but Viktor reassured her that war, royal demands, and possible accidents could keep them under control. Convinced by his plans, Katerina joined Viktor as he carried her toward the bed.

• Katerina feared that Karl's alliance with Earl Rochefort could make the Northern Territory a threat to Prye City.
• Viktor argued that the Saurons would keep attacking Carnford and that Karl might not survive long enough to grow powerful.
• Viktor explained how the royal family could weaken Karl through military orders, taxes, and accusations of rebellion.
• Viktor told Katerina that Louise and any children could die from illness or accidents in the harsh Northern Territory, removing potential threats.
• Katerina trusted Viktor's judgment, and he carried her to the bed before drawing the curtains closed.

Carnford First Shop opened as an orderly, officially backed government store serving the refugee district. Its manager, Herman, used his experience and organizational skill to prepare the shop after Edgar entrusted him with the position.

• Carnford First Shop opened at a busy crossroads in the refugee district, offering grain, cloth, salt, and iron goods.
• Herman managed the shop and its staff, overseeing the counters, goods, accounts, and customer service.
• Edgar had discovered Herman among the refugees and appointed him manager because of his business experience and skill with grain and accounts.
• Herman had lost his shop, wife, and two children when bandits from the Goldflower Kingdom attacked his town, then fled north to Carnford.
• Herman organized the shop's preparations and trained its assistants, impressing Edgar with his efficiency.

The official shop opened to crowded business, using transparent prices and cheap salt to serve refugees while private merchants shifted toward other goods. Karl focused on the rapidly advancing construction of Stockaded Village Number One, where Morr prioritized internal buildings before the defensive walls.

• The official shop drew large crowds with clearly marked prices, affordable grain, and exceptionally cheap salt purchased from refugee families.
• Private grain shops lost customers and discussed how to respond, while Southern Merchant Guild shops prospered by offering varied nonessential goods.
• Karl supported a balance between government-run trade in necessities and private commerce in other goods.
• Morr began Stockaded Village Number One southeast of Carnford, building its functional structures first and planning to construct the outer walls afterward.